Babysitting Ben
by jkleeberger22
Summary: Chewbacca babysits Ben for the evening while Han and Leia are at a Senate meeting. The Wookie finds that he has his hands full at the park when they met a little girl named Rey scavenging in the sandbox...


Inspired by the Calvin and Hobbes drawings of little Kylo Ren and Rey. I just had fun with this one and did not follow canon exactly. Rey's age and planet were modified, for example, so she could interact with young Ben.

Disclaimer: Star Wars (sadly) does not belong to me. I wrote this for fun, not for profit.

O0o

Leia chewed her lip thoughtfully as she read the report from the latest Senate meeting. A minute later, she jumped as a craft involving red paper, cardboard, and a glow rod was dumped onto her lap.

"Hey, Mom, look at the lightsaber I made at school this morning," Ben said, bouncing up on the sofa beside her.

"It's very nice, Ben," Leia said tactfully. "But wouldn't you rather have a green lightsaber like Uncle Luke?"

"Nuh-uh. I want a red one like grandpa's."

"Grandpa's first lightsaber was blue. Uncle Luke used it until it was lost on Cloud City."

"Cool!"

Han poked his head through the doorway. "Leia, you ready to go?"

"Yes," Leia called back. She pushed a dark shock of hair off Ben's forehead and gave him a kiss. "Sorry, sweetheart. We have to stay late again after the Senate meeting, so Chewie will put you to bed."

"Do you have to go?" Ben asked, wrapping his arms around her waist. She returned the embrace, envying mothers who were able to spend evenings playing with their children instead of arguing with politicians over some detail about setting up a new government.

"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Han protested, looking at them with a wounded expression.

Ben grinned and, arms outstretched, leapt off the sofa toward Han. If he had been hoping for a grunt or some other sign of surprise from the former smuggler, he was disappointed. Han caught him and swung him around with one arm, his other hand coming up to scruff the boy's hair.

"I think it's about time for another haircut, Leia. Ben's beginning to look like a Wookie."

"What's wrong with that?" his son protested.

"Nothing, if you're living on Kashyyk," Leia interrupted with a smile. "Here, Wookie-length hair isn't the trend for the human sons of New Republic Councilors."

"Aw, we don't care what the politicians think," scoffed Han.

"Please, Han, be a good example for your son. Show some respect for the office, if not for the occupants themselves."

"Yeah, sure. In that case, we'd better not keep their highnesses waiting." Han dropped a giggling Ben unceremoniously on the sofa. "Be good for Chewie. Love ya, kiddo."

"I know," Ben said, grabbing his lightsaber and heading off in search of Chewie. Han and Leia shared a fond smile.

"That kid's too much like you for his own good."

"He's got some of you too, Han," Leia said. She looked back at the doors slowly sliding shut behind Ben and sighed. "I suspect he wishes he was more like his grandfather, though."

"Hey, don't worry about it. Ben's just a kid, awed by the shiny helmet and all of Vader's Force tricks. He'll grow out of it."

O0o

Chewie prepared supper without a hitch, and Ben chattered cheerfully as he ate his meal. "Did you see my lightsaber, Chewie? Can I stay up and watch the news? Can we go to the park? Oh, please, Chewie, I'll even help clean up! We have lots of time, and-" Ben paused and shoved a huge spoonful of food into his mouth before pointing at his empty plate- "I'm done!"

The Wookie growled assent, and Ben ran to deposit his plate in the kitchen sink. As promised, he helped clean up, although it involved a great deal of unnecessary splashing and mounds of soap bubbles. While Ben grabbed his jacket and ran out to the speeder, Chewie mopped up the results of his charge's "cleaning up."

Once they arrived at the park, Ben made a bee line for a girl about his age wearing a tan swathing of crisscrossing fabric over her simple shirt and pants. Her dark hair was pulled into a set of messy buns, and she was digging busily through the sand pit.

"Whatcha doing, Rey?" he asked, crouching beside her.

She looked up and gave him a grin that revealed a missing tooth. "Kids leave a lotta stuff here, an' I can find all kinds of things. Toys and coins sometimes. If I can find it, I getta keep it."

"Cool! Can I help, too?"

"Sure."

Rey scooped up a handful of sand, dumped it on the other side of her leg, and raked through it with her fingers. Ben mimicked her action, and the hole slowly grew larger, as did the pile of combed sand.

"Look, a bantha!" Rey said proudly, holding up a small plastic figure.

"How'd you find that? There isn't anything in my sand!" Ben pouted.

"Keep looking. It takes patience and a good eye, that's all," the little girl said with a shrug. A few moments later she unearthed a credit chip.

Ben resumed his search, only to throw up his hands a few minutes later and send a small cloud of sand upward with a kick of his boot. "There's nothing here! Can I have that credit chip?"

"No, cuz I found it. Keep looking, and you'll find your own."

Ben's eyes narrowed, his small face squinting up in concentration. A moment later, the chip quivered on the grass and rose. "Hey!" Rey shouted, and she used the Force to slam the object back onto the grass.

"How'd you do that?"

"Same way you did. You're not the only one who can use the Force. Now stop trying to take my chip!"

"That's not very nice! You already found two things, and I have none, so you should share!" Ben said. There was a weak ripple in the Force, and Rey tipped over in the sand.

"Stop pushing me!" Rey shouted. Ben was pushed back onto his heels by a small Force shove and grabbed a small handful of sand to use in retaliation.

"Huurh aarrragghuuhw!" roared Chewbacca, two giant furry paws plucking Ben off the ground.

"Put me down!" Ben demanded, kicking his legs and wriggling in a vain attempt to escape the Wookie's grasp.

"Uughghhhgh uughghhhgh huuguughghg raaaaaahhgh," commanded Chewie.

"Fine," Ben muttered. "Sorry, Rey."

"Me, too," murmured Rey grudgingly, not in the mood to find herself dangling from the Wookie's paws. Then her face lit up. "I can help you find your own, Ben. I'm real good at finding things."

"Okay."

The children's faces were wreathed in smiles when, a few minutes later, they found two pieces of candy with the wrapping mostly intact. They immediately popped the sweets into their mouths and sat beaming at each other, cheeks bulging.

Chewbacca shook his head. At least they were happy again. Though he wasn't about to tell Leia that he had let her son eat a piece of candy that had been lingering- Force only knew how long- in the depths of the sandbox. The children, ready for some action after their scavenging in the sandbox, decided on a simple, classic game of good versus evil. Only Ben's and Rey's version turned out to not be so simple…

"I'll be Darth Vader, and you can be somebody on the other side, so I can fight you."

"Okay. I'll be a storm trooper."

"Storm troopers are on the same side as Darth Vader."

"I'll be a good storm trooper."

"There aren't any."

"How do you know?" Rey retorted, but she unknowingly averted further argument by jumping into the game. She tapped the side of her head, pretending to speak into the comlink of a storm trooper's helmet. "I won't carry out Order 66! I like the Jedi."

"Then I will chase you to the edges of the galaxy!" Ben announced, forfeiting technical details in favor of taking off after the giggling Rey. After a few circles around the park, Rey grabbed a stick and brandished it. "I'm gonna fight you with my lightsaber!"

"Stormtroopers don't use lightsabers."

"This one does."

"You don't know how to follow any of the rules!"

"What rules? We're just playing! 'Sides, you're not good at following _real_ rules! You made a lightsaber with _handles_ at school."

"They're cross guards, and they look cool! Besides, I don't want to get my hand cut off like Uncle Luke!"

"I thought you wanted to be just like Darth Vader! The you hafta get your hand cut off, both of them, and your legs, too!" Rey challenged. Ben could not find a good retort for this, so the two children stood, arms crossed, glaring at each other.

The stand-off came to an abrupt end when simultaneously both children turned and wailed, "Cheewwwie!"

"Tell her!" exclaimed Ben, as Rey shouted, "Tell _him_!"

The Wookie mumbled something unintelligible as he stepped in to mediate yet another argument. In his opinion, these two were worse than Han and Leia on Hoth.

O0o

"Today marks the five-year anniversary of the Battle of Endor. May we all take a moment to remember the losses suffered for the cause of liberty and our victory on that momentous day. Darth Vader, a Sith Lord and important Imperial, and of course his son, New Republic Hero and Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, were instrumental in the death of Emperor Sheev Palpatine. "

Back at the house, Ben sat watching the news on the holovid, waving his make shift lightsaber and mimicking the drone of the weapon when the announcer showed footage of Darth Vader. "Pshew! Kksssshhhh. Nnnnn…"

Chewbacca disturbed his lightsaber sequence, growling and gesturing toward the holovid. "What is it, Chewie?" Ben asked irritably, just as the reporter continued, "Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo led a strike team on Endor to lower the planetary defense shields."

"Hey, he said Mom and Dad!"

"A major producer will be making a holodrama based on the true story of the Battle of Endor from these and other accounts, which will be released at the ten-year anniversary of that important battle."

"Cool! Maybe some writers will come to interview Mom and Dad. I wonder who's gonna play them, and if there'll be a Wookie to play you?"

"Huuguughghg aguhwwgggghhh uughguughhhghghghhhgh uughghhhgh aarrragghuuhw huurh uuh aaahnruh."

Ben pouted. "A bath already?"

"Huuguughghg uughghhhgh huuguughghg huuguughghg uuh huurh wrrhw raaaaaahhgh aaahnruh huuguughghg."

"I know you said I could only stay up until the news report, but-"

"Uughghhhgh raaaaaahhgh awwgggghhh wrrhwrwwhw!"

Ben remembered hastily what it was like to spend the evening with an angry Wookie. "Okay, I'm going!"

A half an hour and one soaked bathroom later, Ben emerged freshly scrubbed and wearing his pajamas, a towel still draped around his shoulders. (He apparently had taken to heart Chewie's lecture from a few weeks earlier about how Wookie fur was not meant to be used as a towel.)

Ben crawled up on Chewie's lap, snuggling up against his shaggy stomach. He tilted his head at a slight upward angle so he could see the Wookie's face. "Tell me a story? Please, Chewie?"

Chewie looked down at the pleading brown orbs, the picture of sleepy innocence, and agreed. Space, why was it that he could never say no to a Solo? He told Ben a version of the tale Threepio had told the Ewoks in Endor (Bypassing, of course, the droid's sound effects. Not even Ben's puppy eyes would induce him to mimic that!) By the time he finished, Ben was snoring softly in his arms. Chewie gently scooped him up, the boy shifting and cuddling up against his shoulder with a sigh of sleepy contentment. Chewie laid Ben on his bed and tucked the blankets around him, then stooped to turn on his astromech droid-shaped nightlight. As he turned to leave, a small voice murmured, "Wait! I need Boba Fett."

Chewie, wondering if Han knew and approved of this name, retrieved the stuffed Ewok from the shelf Ben indicated. He tucked the toy in beside the boy, then ran a large, furry paw over Ben's head with surprising gentleness. "Aaahnruh huurh wrrhw."

"Good night, Chewie," Ben mumbled, eye lids already slipping shut again.

Although Ben might have looked the part when he was asleep, he was not an angel. He was Han's son. And that, Chewie thought, was good enough for him.


End file.
